Fishergate’s new road layout, which includes two sections of bus lane which cannot be used between 11am and 6pm, are now policed by cameras.

The human traffic controls were snapped from lunchtime on Friday out and about in Fishergate, Butler Street and Lune Street informing motorists of the changes.

Figures released by the county council showed more than 8,000 drivers have been caught in the bus lanes in just over a week – with a further 3,000 sent warning letters during a fortnight’s grace period.

Cabinet member for highways and transport county councillor John Fillis said: ““Our aim is to help motorists and pedestrians to get around the city centre. We introduced these changes to stop traffic building up in certain parts of the city, at the busiest times.

“Some of the recent changes have gone well, improving the situation by helping people to get around the city centre. For example, the number of people turning right at the top of Butler Street has reduced significantly since these recent changes were brought in, and we’re hopeful that this number will reduce even further.

“Our engineers continue to monitor the traffic flow in and around the city centre, and they’re adjusting signal timings and sequencing to get the best that we can out of the network.”